1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet post-process system and a sheet post-processing method for post-processing sheets of paper ejected from an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer, or a composite device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in an image forming apparatus, to post-process sheets of paper after image forming such as sorting or stapling sheets of paper, a sheet post-process apparatus may be installed in the neighborhood of the paper ejection unit of the image forming apparatus body. To make succeeding sheets ejected from the image forming apparatus body stand by like this, conventionally, in Japanese Patent Publication 6-99070, an apparatus installing a shifting path halfway the path toward a stapler is disclosed. Further, in Japanese Patent Publication 6-83132, an image forming apparatus for matching a sheet of paper on which an image is formed on an intermediate tray and then re-sending it toward image forming is disclosed.
However, as in the conventional apparatus, when a shifting path is installed halfway the path toward the stapler, the length of the conveying path from the paper ejection section of the image forming apparatus body to the stapler becomes longer, thus a problem arises that miniaturization of the apparatus is disturbed.
Therefore, a sheet post-process system and a sheet post-processing method capable of shortening the distance from the paper ejection section of the image forming apparatus to the processing mechanism for performing the post process and realizing miniaturization are desired.